Designing a buffer-equipped hydraulic engine mount for mid-priced vehicles

A combined hydraulic engine mount and buffer absorber are proposed in this study for use in the mid-priced vehicle. In some vehicle design projects, an engine is selected to use in new car design. To achieve a proper vibration, the engine mount can be redesigned with exorbitant costs and long-term research. The idea of using a buffer in the combination of the conventional engine mount is to suggest a solution with affordable price which can improve mount vibration specifications. As a case study, the engine of Renault L90 (Dacia Logan), which name is K4M engine, is selected to use in the national B class automotive platform design. This automotive platform has been designed at Automotive Engineering Research Center of Iran University of Science and Technology. The hydraulic engine mount is modeled in CATIA. Some tests are done to validate the simulation results. Both engine mount characteristics (with and without buffer) are imported to Adams/Vibration software to evaluate the vibration behavior of the engine mount system. CATIA software is used to determine the characteristics of the engine mounts. The results show that the use of buffer absorber reduces the stiffness of mount, which should be 2 to 3 times lower than engine's frequency excitation. In some directions, the buffer-equipped mount has a better modal energy and isolation characteristics.